Karl Urban likes violent Dredd

The 40-year-old actor - who portrays Judge Dredd in the forthcoming action movie - admits he always knew it was going to be a gory film but claims it was essential for the storyline.

He said: ''It was all there in the script. Alex Garland wrote a very specific script. If you've ever read 'Judge Dredd', you'll know at times, it could be pretty graphic. Tonally, that was the vision for the film. What I find particularly find fresh about the way it is treated in the film is the cinematography and 3D and the story element 'Slo-Mo'. This films dares to do what films should never do and that is momentarily take the audience out of the picture. You're in the middle of a gun fight or even just watching a woman in a bath and you are transfixed by the beauty of the image. Then at that moment, you're essentially out of the story, you're looking at this thinking it's so beautiful and then (bam) slapped back into the movie.''

Karl also urged all fans to watch the movie in 3D as that's how it was made.

He told The Examiner website: ''It was shot entirely in 3D and to me that's what elevates this movie. I understand there is a certain degree of 3D fatigue that people are feeling just because, let's be frank, there have been a few movies that have been in 3D that have been exploitative. The quality of those films hasn't lived up to the potential of the medium, but this film was shot in 3D. It was shot with an Oscar winning cinematographer and the work in it is phenomenal and I would urge anybody, if you are going to see this film, you gotta see it in 3D.''